Well, I’m now back from a lovely, relaxing holiday. Ironically, whilst I was away things were a little busier here as I set up a few posts to publish whilst I was out of the country. Sort of like leaving the living room lights on when you’re out late, I guess. I’ve come back with over 2,500 images to sift through so don’t expect to see any photos imminently, although I may bump some of them ahead of my oft-mentioned backlog. To the right, a little taster to whet your appetite.
Anyway, back to the blogging, and another ‘quickie‘ to get me back into the feel of things.
One of the constant quirks I encounter whilst running this blog is the amazing difference of opinion. Usually, and slightly alarmingly, my readers tend to disagree with me, rather than each other; often I will post images I’ve taken I’m really happy with, which are either ignored or even sometimes disliked, whilst images I was on the verge of binning completely are the ones people take to.
Sometimes it’s less visceral, and a shot where I’ve tried something different – a technique, for instance, or a shooting style – and liked the end result, and found that no-one else seems to. It is a bit more jarring when something you’ve tried deliberately and liked isn’t as well received as you’d hoped.
This is not a post of complaint. I find it fascinating how even the most subtle differences between two images can evoke such differing reactions in two people.
One recent example of this can be found in the post from my trip to Greenwich earlier this year. In it, I posted two very similar images of the Greenwich Foot Tunnel:
Now, as I explained in the post, my preference is for the first image. I prefer the scale of the former (I was further down the tunnel when I took the latter), and I felt the tilt on the frame helped create the illusion of a long, extending tunnel (think Vertigo). You, however, disagreed.
I once again find myself in a similar position. Whilst riding on a train recently, I took two different frames of the same shot, not unlike the two images above: one tilted, one straight.
I’m certain these two images will yet again provide dissenting opinions, not least because they are also more disparately processed than the Greenwich Tunnel images. I’ll be honest too: the slanted shot wasn’t deliberate, I was too lazy to get out of my seat and was holding the camera out into the aisle.
There might have been an overarching point to this post, but if there is, it has temporarily escaped me.
Creative Splurges 
The nice thing about art is that it is so subjective. What may appeal to one person may not appeal to another. My husband and I are total opposites when it comes to things artistic. He love abstracts where I prefer landscapes and flowers. I think these photos are great. I personally prefer the black and white ones. Nice work.
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Thanks for your comment, and I agree – the subjectiveness of art is what makes it so varied and astonishing.
A follow-up question though, if I may: do you prefer the black and white images because they’re black and white, or because of some other element of the composition? This is one of the great things about photography as an art form, there are so many elements, and different ones will appeal to different people in different ways. Which in turn can be a headache when you’re editing your own photos – do you edit to your own taste, or try to edit to other people’s? Should I do adjust this or that, or leave them as they are? There are so many variables it’s a wonder we get any photographs completed at all!
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